Operation Date Escape

“From him.”
    “You want mouth to everything,” Kelsie declared as she shrugged free of her friend’s desperate grasp. People were staring.
    “I certainly wouldn’t complain.” Sighing, Nanci returned to her seat at the bar. “But he wasn’t interested in what I had to offer anyway. He wanted you.”
    Kelsie’s head snapped around. “Me?”
    Her friend laughed. “The man couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
    She didn’t want to hear this. “You’re crazy.”
    “I don’t think so,” Nanci replied, all sunshine and smiles. “I saw how he was looking at you.”
    She tried hard not to think about the dark eyes that had stared so intently into hers a few moments before. “I doubt he could see much of anything past the breasts you were shoving in his face.”
    “ My breasts might as well have been invisible for all the good they did me tonight.” She paused to flash a flirtatious smile at the bartender who stood watching her from the far end of the bar.
    Grinning, Kelsie nudged her friend. “Looks to me like someone noticed them.”
    “He is kind of cute, isn’t he? And he’s single.”
    “He is?”
    “I didn’t see a ring on his finger when he...” Nanci stopped her dreamy muttering and turned back to Kelsie, tsk tsk-ing as she did so. “Nice try.”
    “What are you talking about?” she asked innocently.
    “You know damn well what I’m talking about. I’m referring to your trying to divert our conversation away from your non-existent love life.”
    “Boy, it’s hard to get anything past you,” Kelsie replied in a playfully sarcastic tone.
    “And don’t you forget it.”
    She reached for her wine cooler. “Well, I’m not here to find a man, so let it go.”
    “Fine. But I have half a mind to tell your mother about the hunk you let get away.” Nanci pressed a hot pink nail to her chin. “Let’s see... Which station was it ‘Cole’ worked at again? Hmm...Worthington Fire Department, wasn’t it?”
    If her mother had even the tiniest inkling a man like that was interested in her daughter, she would be introducing herself at the firehouse tomorrow with a tray full of cookies and a Xerox copy of her daughter’s finer qualities. The same list her mother gave every man she wanted to persuade into going on a blind date with her ‘beautiful, young, sure-to-be-fertile daughter’.
    Kelsie shot a warning glance her way. “If you even think about bringing him up to my mother, I really will strangle you. And I promise you the guy I get to revive you wouldn’t even qualify for a dog calendar.”
    “Fireman? ” Nanci asked with feigned ignorance and a smile. “What fireman? See, he’s forgotten already.”
    Kelsie glanced toward the door, her heart still racing. If only it were that easy.
    * * *
    Kelsie yawned for about the hundredth time that morning as she ran her brush through her hair. The reflection looking back at her in the bathroom mirror showed tale tell signs of the sleep she hadn’t gotten the night before thanks to Cole the fire hunk. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d lost that much sleep over a man.
    The way he’d looked at her had made her feel...almost sexy, something she hadn’t felt for a very long time. Why he would even notice her when Nanci was sending out very clear ‘I’m yours for the taking’ signals was beyond her. But the thought of it made her smile.
    The kitchen phone rang, echoing through the tiny apartment. A quick glance at her watch reminded her she was already running late for work. She debated letting the answering machine pick up the call instead. What if it was important?
    Muttering a curse, she tossed her brush onto the bathroom counter and hurried out to answer it. So much for having time to stop and pick up her morning cappuccino on the way into work.
    She glanced down at the caller I.D. before hitting talk. Her mother. Her groan echoed off the kitchen walls. A call before eight a.m. from her mother had the same connotation a red sky in the morning did for sailors. It meant trouble.
    She answered it as she made her way to the fridge. “Hello?”
    “You’re still there,” her mother said excitedly. “ I’m so glad I caught you before you left for work.”
    Oh, God, she should have run out the door. She of all people knew what it meant when her mother used that sugary-sweet tone with her. “Look, Mom—” she began as she grabbed a bottle of apple juice from the fridge.
    “Just give me a sec,” her mother said,